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2018 Midterm Elections

I didn't see a thread for this. It's important to vote for your state's senators and representatives, especially if you wish to combat the Trump administration. Don't assume that only the Presidential elections are important.

My representative is Joseph Crowley and my senator is Kirsten Gillibrand. Both of them are Democrats. I will look into them and who they're running against later, but I'll post them here so I can remember them. There are currently four Republicans running against Kirsten, but none of them have Wikipedia articles. I'm pretty sure my state (New York) will keep its incumbent Democrats, but it's best to keep an eye on them just in case.

Anyone here following their representatives/senators and who they're running against?

I am in NY, so I am excited to see if Cynthia Nixon can beat Cuomo for governor in the primaries.
I personally like using ballotpedia.org to see who is running for what elections on what days for my city (don't have to remember district numbers, just type in city and state, and it'll give a list of elections you can take part in, when, and who is running for which party).

Maybe sure you are registered to vote, and if your state doesn't do open primaries, that you're in the right party to be able to vote in primaries. I know a lot of people who want to be green/ind/other to help their numbers, but are then locked out of primary elections.

Research, know what's up, prepare, and vote. Vote every time voting can be done. Vote all the time.

I’m in the Illinois 10th Congressional District, Democrat Brad Schneider is the incumbent, Republican Doug Bennett is the challenger. Republican Mark Kirk was our Representative for a long time, but he was a pretty moderate Republican at the time, pro environment, etc. Bennett is a Trump supporter so I just don’t see him winning up here on the North Shore.

kind of curious i try not to paint things with to broad a brush i spent a little over a week in downtown Indianapolis for eli Lilly one thing surprised me was most people running for seats were running on a pro trump platform, realize Chicago is different than Indy but is that also the case there? thought about gong into Chicago but i rarely rent a car was also sup prized at the lack of public transit.
-Louie

kind of curious i try not to paint things with to broad a brush i spent a little over a week in downtown Indianapolis for eli Lilly one thing surprised me was most people running for seats were running on a pro trump platform, realize Chicago is different than Indy but is that also the case there? thought about gong into Chicago but i rarely rent a car was also sup prized at the lack of public transit.
-Louie

Indianapolis is 3 hours from Chicago so public transportation to/from Chicago isn’t possible. Indiana is way more Republican in general than Illinois. And the City of Chicago is pretty Democrat, natch. Trump hates Chicago because UIC protests forced him to cancel his rally during his campaign.

Our governor, Mark Dayton, isn't seeking another term, so we'll be dealing with the battle for his seat. It makes me nervous, cause Dayton's actually been pretty good to us. I'm hoping that we'll manage to replace him with someone who's at least as good as him. Right now, he's the only thing stopping the dogshit Republicans in the state senate (who currently hold the majority by ONE seat) from defunding and totally ruining our whole state. On top of that we now have BOTH senator seats up for re-election after the Al Franken thing. Originally it was only going to be our other senator, Amy Kloubachar, who was up for re-election. Honestly, I think her seat is pretty safe. Franken's seat wasn't going to be up for reelection until 2020, but his resignation changed all that.

So yeah. The Governor's seat and BOTH senator seat are in play this November, and even though we tend to lean blue somewhat, we're definitely still a battleground state. You just know the GOP is salivating at the chance to flip our state Red like they did with Wisconsin. It's gonna get fucking ugly over here.

Our governor, Mark Dayton, isn't seeking another term, so we'll be dealing with the battle for his seat. It makes me nervous, cause Dayton's actually been pretty good to us. I'm hoping that we'll manage to replace him with someone who's at least as good as him. Right now, he's the only thing stopping the dogshit Republicans in the state senate (who currently hold the majority by ONE seat) from defunding and totally ruining our whole state. On top of that we now have BOTH senator seats up for re-election after the Al Franken thing. Originally it was only going to be our other senator, Amy Kloubachar, who was up for re-election. Honestly, I think her seat is pretty safe. Franken's seat wasn't going to be up for reelection until 2020, but his resignation changed all that.

So yeah. The Governor's seat and BOTH senator seat are in play this November, and even though we tend to lean blue somewhat, we're definitely still a battleground state. You just know the GOP is salivating at the chance to flip our state Red like they did with Wisconsin. It's gonna get fucking ugly over here.

I can't say I follow this sort of thing much but it's good get a heads up. A republican Minnesota even sounds awful.

flip our state Red like they did with Wisconsin. It's gonna get fucking ugly over here.

I wouldn’t characterize Wisconsin as a flip to red. Democrats had control for 8 Presidential elections, but by a pretty slim margin. And it was the other direction for decades before that. Wisconsin’s blue collar more-populated factory towns were largely Democrat, while the rural areas were Republican. The economy tanked, factories long ago closed, minorities in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha are overlooked, the education system is in debt up to its eyeballs, then Rep. Scott Walker promised change. So far, not much change except he distanced himself from Trump; a lot of the voters who did vote for Trump are Democrats who are fed up. The Democratic candidates who’ve ran against Walker have had scandals and poor track records. Ryan has been representing that district since 1999. Scott Walker has been Governor since 2011.

I wouldn’t characterize Wisconsin as a flip to red. Democrats had control for 8 Presidential elections, but by a pretty slim margin. And it was the other direction for decades before that. Wisconsin’s blue collar more-populated factory towns were largely Democrat, while the rural areas were Republican. The economy tanked, factories long ago closed, minorities in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha are overlooked, the education system is in debt up to its eyeballs, then Rep. Scott Walker promised change. So far, not much change except he distanced himself from Trump; a lot of the voters who did vote for Trump are Democrats who are fed up. The Democratic candidates who’ve ran against Walker have had scandals and poor track records. Ryan has been representing that district since 1999. Scott Walker has been Governor since 2011.

Yeah, that's all true.

Although, when I said flip the state red, I wasn't so much thinking about Trump winning Wisconsin. I was referring more to Walker and Ryan and the big shift that took place back around 2011. Since then, Republicans have gerrymandered the hell out of it and controlled both the legislature and the governor's seat. Before then, the state tended to be more battleground-y, similar to Minnesota in some ways, but in the last ten years the Republicans have decimated Wisconsin, particularly in the realms of education and the public sector and unions. And that's what everyone is afraid of happening here since Republicans currently hold a slim majority in our state senate. Keeping the governor seat Democrat is crucial.

The thing is, Minnesota and Wisconsin have sort of become these competing ideological symbols, with each state representing its own model for the economy. Right wingers resent the fact that Minnesota is right next door and has a superior economy. It's bad for the Republican brand, since they're always pretending to be the ones who care so much about the economy. They hate the example we set, which is why I guarantee they'd love the chance to tear us down.

Crowley has lost the Democratic primary to Alexandria Ocasiao-Cortez. My district's population is largely Hispanic, and has voted for Democratic Presidential candidates consistently since 1992, so there's a good chance she'll get a set in the House.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...ocasio-n886851

Crowley has lost the Democratic primary to Alexandria Ocasiao-Cortez. My district's population is largely Hispanic, and has voted for Democratic Presidential candidates consistently since 1992, so there's a good chance she'll get a set in the House.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...ocasio-n886851

I thought it was classy of Crowley to not only announce his support of Ocasiao-Cortez but to also dedicate his band's performance of "Born To Run" to her last night at this campaign party. I'd like to see what the news pundits have to say about civility with that.

I knew 100% nothing about Alexandria until last night and now I'm kind of jealous that I can't vote for her where I live. This was a big game changer and I'm excited to see what her win does to the party.

Cortez is an AMAZING candidate. So happy she will be in the House come next year. She was an organizer for Bernie, and is an unabashed progressive. And here is CNN so transparently trying to get her to shit on the nat'l party....really pathetic and obvious what Harlowe is doing here in the first two minutes:

Gotta try & get that sound byte. Fucking hack.

And here's that piece of shit Pelosi downplaying the win:

"Asked directly about a characterization from Republicans that democratic socialism was “ascendent” in the Democratic Party, Pelosi dismissed the notion.

“It’s ascendent in that district perhaps,” she said of New York’s 14th congressional district, an exceptionally diverse swath of Queens and Bronx counties. “But I don’t accept any characterization of our party presented by the Republicans. So let me reject that right now. Our party is a big tent, our districts are very different, one from the other.”

“Each of our members is elected to be the independent representative of their district, Pelosi continued. “So nobody’s district is representative of somebody’s else’s district.”

As it becomes more obvious that Trump would be impeached if the Dems win in the midterms, Mother Russia is clearly looking to prevent that from happening. Relevant now that Trump and Putin have publicly confessed their love for one another while still denying that Russia had any involvement in 2016.http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-ru...idterms-2018-7

Our governor, Mark Dayton, isn't seeking another term, so we'll be dealing with the battle for his seat. It makes me nervous, cause Dayton's actually been pretty good to us. I'm hoping that we'll manage to replace him with someone who's at least as good as him.

...

Good summary! While I consider myself an independent, the economy in Minnesota has been good for some time, so I hope Minnesota does not vote to rock the boat. I am not 100% happy with the endorsed candidate, but I think a discussion of specific state candidates is not an interesting discussion to have on ETS.

As it becomes more obvious that Trump would be impeached if the Dems win in the midterms, Mother Russia is clearly looking to prevent that from happening.

It's also so obviously the crucial issue at this point that Trump's cult is mobilized.... this is terrifying. Is this really going to come down to whether or not sane people hate this madness or supportive denial? Which of those incentives is the greater pull to get people to actually get off their ass and vote in an election they usually don't bother to?

Psychologists are going to have a field day with this shit, regardless.

I'm really pissed off that I can't find the rebuttal article to the 11-year-old thing. The gist of it though was that they're basically given free reign to physically access the machines in conditions that are not comparable to what an actual in-service election machine would be under. They were basically saying "yeah, no shit someone might be able to steal your gold if you just toss it in a shoebox under your bed, but not when that shoebox is in a safety deposit box".

Electronic voting has always worried me, but I think the headline is more alarmist than the reality calls for.

Yeah, I am a poll worker every election, and physical tampering just isn't going to happen. There are multiple numbered seals on everything on those machines, down to the seal that holds the fabric cover in place over it during transport. And there is always one dem and one repub with it at all times, including drop off after polls close.
Any digital meddling would have to be done remotely.